Instructions to authors

Acceptance criteria

The journal will consider for publication only manuscripts not previously formally published. We will not consider for publication articles permanently posted online. To be acceptable, a paper must be of interest to an international readership, even if its immediate scope is local.

Types of papers

  • Research article (standard scientific paper based on original data)
  • Synthesis (thorough review of a topic that leads to new ideas, interpretations or conclusions)
  • Essay (short paper including original ideas, interpretations or well-sustained arguments without new data that contributes to free debate of controversial theories or addresses criticism of papers already published in the scientific literature)

    Manuscripts

    Please fit the text, tables and figures in A4 format with the following margins: Top: 3 cm; Bottom: 2 cm; Left: 2.5 cm; Right: 2 cm; Header: 2 cm; Footer: 1.5 cm. Use the font Times New Roman size 12 and justify the text. Manuscripts must be written in clear, formal English (either British or American throughout). To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of your word processor. Manuscripts should be submitted via e-mail to the editorial secretariat (contrib.bot@ubbcluj.ro) in *.doc or *.docx format.

    Manuscript structure

    Use the logical structure composed of Introduction - Methods - Results - Discussion. The last three chapters may be split in few sections bearing informative titles. Avoid footnotes. Variation from the usual structure is acceptable for Synthesis and Essays. Use scientific names of taxa and avoid vernacular names. Units of measurement must follow the International System of Units. Use words rather than symbols where possible, especially in the Title, Abstract and Keywords. Use '.' for a decimal point.

    Citations in the text: Use numbers separated by commas into square brackets according to the ranks given in the list of alphabetically ordered references (as an example, see one of the recently published papers). Indicate unpublished materials in the main text as "unpubl.", "pers. comm." or via web-addresses. Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa).

  • Title: This should reflect strictly the content of the manuscript.

  • Author names and addresses: Provide all authors' names and affiliations. Give the e-mail address of the corresponding author.

  • Abstract: Up to 350 words for Research articles or Synthesis papers and up to 250 for Essays. Include no references. Most of the abstract body should be given to the presentation of results and conclusions. Avoid uninformative, general formulations.

  • Keywords: There should be 6–10 keywords, separated by commas. Do not repeat any word from the paper's title.

  • Nomenclature: Refer to a source for unified nomenclature of plant species or vegetation units, unless there be few taxa names and their authors are given in the text.

  • Abbreviations: List any that are frequently used in the text.

  • Introduction

    State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

  • Material and methods

    Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.

  • Results

    The results should be presented clearly and concisely. Do not use citations in this section.

  • Discussion

    This should interpret the results obtained by reference to current theories and similar studies published in the literature. Try to give an explanation to each outcome.

  • Conclusions (optional)

    The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of the Discussion chapter.

  • Acknowledgements

    Keep them brief. References to research projects/funds and institutional publication numbers can be specified here.

    Tables

    Numerical results should be presented as either tables or figures, but not both. Table legends should be on the same page as the table to which they refer. The legend should contain sufficient information for the table to be understood without reference to the text of the paper. Units should appear in parentheses in the column headings, not in the body of the table. If some parts of the table need to be highlighted (e.g. groups of important species), use background shading or boldface (not framing). For large tables with many empty cells, fill the empty cells with dots to facilitate reading. Please check that large tables fit within A4 format with the declared margins (see above).

    Figures

    Figures in the submitted manuscript should be supplied at the size at which they are intended to be printed, but do not exceed the page margins. They should be embedded in the text for the purpose of reviewing. Figure legends should be included within the manuscript text file on the same page as the figure to which they refer, to ease the reading by editors and referees. The legend should contain sufficient information for the figure to be understood without reference to the text of the paper. Scale bars should be given on microphotographs and maps. The journal welcomes colour figures and plates when information would be lost if reproduced in black and white. However, if the number of colour figures is too high, the journal may ask the authors for a fee of 25 euros per figure. Upon acceptance of the manuscript, the vector graphics should be supplied in EPS or EMF formats, whereas the half-tone or colour figures as TIFF or PNG files at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch) and at the final size at which they are to appear in the journal.

    References

    The Reference section can contain only material that is published (including early online publications with a DOI) or that refers to MS/PhD theses. References in the languages that use the Latin alphabet are cited in the original language; the others must be translated into English. Optionally, references in the Cyrillic and Greek alphabets can be transliterated to Latin alphabet. Always give the full name of the journals. Use the following styles depending on the type of reference:

  • Book:

    Callaway, R.M., 2007. Positive Interactions and Interdependence in Plant Communities. Springer, Dordrecht.

  • Journal article:

    Christenhusz, M.J.M., Reveal, J.L., Farjon, A., Gardner, M.F., Mill, R.R., Chase, M.W., 2011. A new classification and linear sequence of extant gymnosperms. Phytotaxa, 19: 55-70.

  • Article by DOI:

    Adams, J.P., Pelkki, M.H., Ford, V.L., Humphrey, A., 2016. Initial effects of quinclorac on the survival and growth of high biomass tree species. Annals of Forest Research. DOI: 10.15287/afr.2016.734

  • Chapters within a volume:

    Nocentini, S., Coll, H., 2013. Mediterranean Forests. Human use and complex adaptive systems. In: Messier, C., Puettmann, K.J., Coates, K.D. (eds.), Managing Forests as Complex Adaptive Systems: Building Resilience to the Challenge of Global Change. Routledge, New York.

  • M.Sc./Ph.D. thesis:

    Dynesius, M., 2001. Spatial and evolutionary aspects of species diversity, species traits and human impact with examples from boreal riparian and forest plant communities. PhD thesis, Umeå University, Sweden.

  • Online document:

    Press, J.R., Shrestha, K.K., Sutton, D.A., 2000. Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal. http://www.efloras.org/flora_page.aspx?flora_id=110. Accessed 4 May 2017.

    Important notes:

  • The full responsibility for the content of the article belongs to the authors.
  • The papers that do not conform to the above mentioned rules will be rejected without reviewing.
  • There are no page charges.